


Bruises

by MaladaptiveNinjaReturns



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 12:47:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17284334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaladaptiveNinjaReturns/pseuds/MaladaptiveNinjaReturns
Summary: Loki is confused by your crumbling self-confidence until he discovers the reason behind it.





	Bruises

**Author's Note:**

> This was written at the same time as SUN. So the narration is quite noob-y. *nervous laugh*

“Isn’t that t-”

“Too revealing? Oh God! I knew this dress was too good to be decent.”

You walked back into your room and quickly shut the door behind you, taking both Loki and Clint by surprise.

Clint frowned as he looked at Loki for an answer, who himself wore a confused look.

“I was going to say isn’t that the dress you wore at the fundraiser last year?”

Clint raised his brows, holding back the smirk as he nodded. “Good memory, yes. The funny thing is it was the same fundraiser where she kicked your ass before Thor told us you’d been our inside guy the whole time.”

The confusion was replaced with a death stare. “Well, I let her kick my ass otherwise you brainless twats wouldn’t have stopped coming at me till my incessantly positive brother arrived,” Loki let a growl of disappointment as he recalled the event.

“You should go talk to her,” Clint said reassuringly as he went on his way to train with Peter outside.

“Spider-baby’s going to learn what it’s like being a spider in an open field where he can’t build webs in the corners of a building,” he’d told Loki, who was sure he saw a menacing grin on his face and was scared for the human arachnid’s safety.

You had changed into your shorts and tank top. Looking at the dress in your hands you thought to yourself how the dress did look great on you.

“But it does look stunning on you.”

You jumped as a tiny scream left your body before you turned around and came face to face with Loki.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you there,” you haphazardly moved around his towering figure planted between you and your closet, burying the dress in a corner before turning back.

This had been the second time Loki was confused by your actions.

“Usually it would be me apologising for sliding into your room without any prior notice and you would be the one throwing punches and powerballs at me.” Loki plopped on your bed, next to the side you slept on.

“Oh, why is your bed so hard?” He said as he adjusted his body till he found a comfortable position and eased himself onto your most private furniture, crossing his arms behind his head.

“For my back. It runs in my family. Sorry” You sighed, cursing yourself as you saw his resting bitch face scolding you wordlessly for another ‘sorry’.

“I can’t help it, okay. And for the record, you caught me off guard otherwise it wouldn’t have just been powerballs aimed at you. It would have been the fundraiser fiasco all over again.”

Loki laughed, the emotion reaching his eyes as his head was thrown back in utter delight. You hadn’t seen him this carefree ever and seeing him laugh because of you made you realise how warm it made you feel on the inside. You were nearly melting with joy.

“What is bothering you, love?” The green and blue in Loki’s eyes danced like a clear ocean in the sun rays coming in from the window behind you. The word 'love’ on his lips was meant just for you and your entire existence still could not get used to the idea that you were together right now.

'Love’- it would send such a tranquil vibration down your entire body that you would feel every ounce of unnecessary stress leave you at the command of his voice. It truly was magical.

You let out a huge sigh, a little tension leaving your shoulders as you planted yourself next to him, resting your hands on your stomach, consciously relaxing all your body parts, just like Strange had taught you during your counselling sessions.

You tried to find the right words, not knowing how to begin, all the while Loki lay there beside you, showing no sign of hurry.

“I really like that dress,” you let out softly.

“You should,” he replied, his breathing not faltering for even a moment, “you make it look worthy.”

“That’s not what I’ve heard from some people,” you said under your breath.

You felt him turn his head in your direction. The silence between you was always weirdly comfortable.

“I-uh…” you gulped, taking a moment to form a sentence, “I went through some…stuff with one of my…uh…ex-boyfriends. There were issues of emotional abuse-” you heard your voice crack. Taking a second to clear your throat you continued.

“But it’s all in past. And I don’t want to sound overdramatic. I mean, I know people who’ve had it worse.”

You could feel the heaviness in your chest build a little. Great, throwing your old baggage in your new potential- as you were taking things slow mostly because of the many concerned people living with you- lovers, you thought.

“First of all,” Loki’s soft voice broke your train of thought, “when something haunts you so much that it moulds you as a person, it’s never in the past.”

“Second of all,” he turned in your direction , his head now supported by his arm as his biceps waited to be rescued from under his blue T-shirt, “overdramatic would be Thor retelling all the tales of how I 'cheated’ during playtime with my magic when I was clearly not as physically fit or extraordinarily energetic as him.”

You let out a laugh as Loki used the air-quotes and all he could do was look at you with soft astonished eyes as a smile found its way to his lips.

You met his gaze and the ocean eyes brought every anxious thought to pause for a minute.

“Breathe, love.”

You did. You did the best your lungs could before letting all the heaviness flow out.

“I broke up with him on the 'fundraiser fiasco’ day.”

You could see his brows furrow in confusion.

“Mrs Stark had bought the dress for me a day before. She said she’d seen it in the store and thought of me and she’d made me promise to wear to the event. Loki, the moment I tried it on for the very first time it felt like I was seeing something glowing in me that I’d never seen before. But the guy who I was with thought otherwise. He…umm…called me disgusting for wearing it and going out with men twice my age, even emotionally blackmailed me into not going to save the kids if I didn’t want him to break up with me. I almost didn’t make it that night. I almost didn’t,” you broke into soft laughter between the tears, “kick your ass that night had it not been for Bucky and Clint. They’d both shown up at my door at the right time. I bless Clint’s instincts till this day to have thought about making Bucky escort me to the venue that night. And…and when I came back home, he…” your voice trailed away for a moment before finishing, “he left me.”

You shrugged your shoulders.

Before you could clear your blurry vision, you felt cold arms embrace you. Every shaking muscle was being eased by his touch while every stinking memory was replaced by his enticing smell. You found yourself burying your face in his chest as his lips touched your aching temple, burning away the heaviness bit by bit.

“I reckon this wasn’t the first time he’d done this?”

Loki voice never grew up from a soft hum. It often ached your heart to wonder what he must have gone through to know what hurts and what doesn’t.

You shook your head. “No, it wasn’t.”

Loki’s embrace got tighter. You could hear his heart beating faster. You wrapped your arms around his torso, waiting patiently as the beats steadied back to a normal pace.

 

“I must say I’m jealous. That dress looks so hot on you,” Natasha raised her champagne glass as you entered the terrace that twinkling in fairy lights today.

A string of happy birthdays filled the air as everyone raised a glass to toast to you.

“Where’s David? Didn’t he say he was going to come today?” Steve shouted from the other end of the bar, genuinely concerned.

You froze at the name of your ex-boyfriend, wondering if there was a nice way to tell Steve that the S.H.I.E.L.D. operative was not a welcoming site for you in so many ways.

“He had an emergency. He won’t make it.” Clint shouted from your end, making a Jagerbomb for you, him and Loki-who had disappeared- while he handed a bottle of root beer to Peter.

“Peter, what happened?” You couldn’t help but notice a large bruise down his neck towards the shoulder.

He noticed your worried look and tried to hide it, giving you a sheepish grin, telling you not to worry about it.

“Clint, don’t tell me it was you.”

“It was the concrete, really.”

“You worry me, Barton. And that’s coming from me.” Loki chimed in, taking the empty seat next to you and planting his hand on your back.

Peter rested his head on the cold bar top as he smiled like a puppy on seeing you and Loki.

“You two are so adorable I would die for you.” Peter’s flushed face was really not able to keep the happiness inside.

“Oh God,” Clint tiredly looked at the empty bottle beside Peter, “I gave him the wrong beer. Please don’t tell Tony.”

“Aww! I’d die for you too Peter.” You patted his head and looked at his content face.

“I won’t let that happen,” Loki looked at Peter and then you with great resolve, his eyes never faltering. He drew you close to him, pulling your hair away from your face.

“Now kiss,” Peter whispered as he giggled and passed out.

—

_Loki had been the one to call Clint into Bruce’s lab after he left Y/N feeling a lot better about herself._

_Clint had been right on time with Peter following him on his heels, a sense of relief on his face to have gotten out of the training today._

“ _Who was Y/N’s boyfriend?”_

_There were no greetings. Loki had gone straight up to the point of concern. Bruce stood at one end of the lab, listening to what exactly was going down._

“ _Why? Are you planning to duel with him? Mortal combat or-?” Clint was cut mid-sentence._

“ _Remember the fundraiser? When I had been trying to avoid fighting Y/N that night, I was also making sure to keep her out of the way of the enemy attack. I am quite sure I had ended up bruising one of her arms and neck when I had pulled her away from the line of fire and held her to the ground.”_

_Clint did not take his eyes away from Loki even as he stopped talking._

“ _Yes, she had to get an ice pack so that it won’t develop into a bru-wait a minute. She didn’t come to the Facility the next day and when I’d gone to visit her, she had a huge one around her jaw.”_

_“That was the first time he felt the need to use physical force on her Barton,” Loki said with undoubted assurance._

_Suddenly the room grew tense as Loki’s hands curled into a fist while Clint’s jaws clenched tightly as he let out a 'son of a bitch’._

“ _Here,” Bruce threw, what looked like a taser gun, towards Clint, “it’s ten times more damaging. He’d wish he were dead.”_

“ _I’m coming too.” Peter was as serious as anyone present in this room._

_“No one hurts my friend and gets away with it.”_

_No one argued._

“ _Very well,” Clint said before rushing out of the lab with his partners in crime, “let’s make that bastard pay a visit to the emergency room.”_


End file.
